LOCAL FEATURE ACTIVISTS MARCH TO THE MLB GAME ACTIVISTS AGAINST THE SWEEPS staged a march from Curtis Park toward Coors Field, but “We’ve seen that trauma and that violence on a they were CREDIT: PAULA BARD DENVER’S HUMANITARIAN CRISES BY THE NUMBERS There are alarming numbers of citizens who are priced out of housing in Denver. Census data reveals that Denver grew 19.2% between 2010 and 2020, adding 115,000 residents. As a result, the recent five year strategic plan released by HOST claims that Denver has a shortage of nearly 19,000 rental units for the extremely low-income earners, those earning $21,000 yearly; a shortage of 20,000 rental units for those earning $35,000 yearly; a shortage of more than 11,000 rental unit for those earning $42,000 yearly. This adds up to a shortage of 50,000 rental units. HOST states that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the housing crisis, pointing out that, “Median rent spiked 78% over the past decade, far outpacing wages. Denver’s unemployment quadrupled, requests for rent and utility assistance increased 270%. Now, more than 250,000 Coloradans are behind on their rent and mortgage payments.” According to the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, at the beginning of 2020, there were 6,104 unhoused people in Denver, with 1,561 of them unsheltered. But over the last year and a half, according to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, homelessness and housing instability have increased dramatically during this public health emergency. Denver has housed 2,000 temporarily in hotel rooms and 6,000 in shelters, plus 100 in the two SOS sanctioned camping sites. and 33 in tiny home villages. A CHALLENGE FOR DENVER Among the high-level themes identified in the plan is the need for more affordable housing, more quickly, with embedded support services and fewer restrictions. To get there, we must shift from being reactive and scarcity-driven to a proactive, outcome-based approach. “Swept to Nowhere” asks Denver specifically to “redirect practices toward health equity and attainable housing instead of sweeps that do not work.” They further ask for leadership from Denver as to where the houseless community should go while housing is created. As they put it, “Ultimately, homelessness ends with a home.” The “Swept to Nowhere” report concludes with, “We are facing unprecedented times together. The challenge of a COVID world has exacerbated the number of unhoused residents throughout our nation. Many of the standard solutions for homelessness have proven ineffective. But humans have a resounding ability to adapt. This is our challenge.” ■ blocked by the Denver Police Department before reaching the ballpark. They were repeatedly told they could walk single file down the sidewalk. DPD then kept blocking the march, pushing the marchers further to the East. Virya Kelsing, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, was thrown to the ground while following instructions to proceed single file down the sidewalk. The group finally broke up their march and set their sign-bearing tents up at the State Capitol. A few persevered and made it to the MLB game, their original destination. Was Denver listening? Sweeps continued unabated, with three more sweeps conducted that week. weekly basis.” Wren, an activist and service provider, said about the sweeps. “They’re constantly under stress, people are constantly getting moved around. They’re constantly losing everything they own. Every single sweep that I have been at, at least one person lost everything they own. This happened to a friend of mine. And she called me afterward, in tears. She was sobbing, she was suicidal, talked about wanting to kill herself, because she lost medications, she lost important documents, she lost irreplaceable family mementos. And that’s the kind of trauma that we’re talking about here, three times a week.” ■ CREDIT: PAULA BARD CREATIVE SUGGESTIONS FROM THE NEIGHBORS How about buying up all those hotels for sale and putting the unhoused to work, converting them into small apartments? How about hiring the unhoused to rehab all those old, unused school buildings sitting empty in Denver? How about rehabbing some of those dead malls? How about building villages out on the plains in Eastern Colorado? More camping sites? More parking lots for RV living? How about converting parking garages to camping sites? CREDIT: PAULA BARD September 2021 DENVER VOICE 9
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